The present disclosure generally relates to secure data loading. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a USB device for secure data loading to a system component, a method for secure data loading to a system component using a USB device, as well as to a computer program for executing the method.
In the aircraft industry and other industries, data loading techniques are used to apply software or configuration updates to system components, such as to the components of an aircraft system or to the components of an industrial control system. For maintenance of aircraft systems, for example, it is known to employ Portable Data Loaders (PDLs) or other types of data loading workstations to transfer data loads to respective components of the system. PDLs and other data loading workstations may retrieve data loads from external media, such as floppy, CD, DVD and USB storage, and perform data loads to the system components from these media accordingly. Many aircraft systems also support data loading from USB storage devices themselves. In these cases, a system component comprises a USB interface for connection with a USB storage device and for retrieval of data loads therefrom.
In general, a system or system component needs to be secured against defective data loads. While techniques for securing data loads are generally known, some of these techniques may be complex or may involve high operational overhead.